Tzuyu drama - a historical background

Pop-culture tries to stay oblivious to politics and history, which is hard, especially in such volatile region as East Asia, where every country is hating its neighbors, while maintaining diplomatic, economic and cultural relationship. Russia and Japan still do not have peace treaty signed, ending the WWII, North Korea and South Korea are in the same situation since 1953 having only signed the armistice, North Korea kidnapped Japanese citizens and some never returned, S. Korea and Japan fight over Dokdo/Takeshima, China and Japan fight over Diaoyu/Senkaku and Taiwan was erased from world maps in 1972.

That's why I love history. It helps to understand the dynamics in some regions or countries, it provides a background to what is happening now, in 21st century. But the tricky part with the history is this: it's always written by the victors, so one needs to be extra critical when it comes to the sources. It helps to read from various perspectives, even if it's a little tiring. In the latest spat over a tiny flag held by a tiny girl, no side is without a fault.

Wake Me Up When...

 

  

    ...Koreans get their priorities right. Oh well, let's not be biased, let's say - when fandoms get their priorities straight, because what's been happening in September in our lovely Hallyuland, can turn a normal person into a raging Hulk within 0.00000001 sec.

September is an eventful month in this particular world. Kdrama-llama land may be barren and boring for months but when events start to happen, it's a deluge.

Weapon of mass destruction

   In the previous post I gave links to 3 funny fancams. Two are of SuJu's and one BB's. And one doesn't have to be a sociologist to predict a shitstorm that followed the last one, mostly so-called "clash of cultures". Let me just explain myself. I do believe in this clash of cultures, it happened in 19th century when white man came to Pacific islanders who never saw any other people than themselves. I believe in clash of cultures in the middle of 20th century, when the whole world was recovering from WWII and Cold War started shattering old alliances and forming new ones. But I hardly believe in clash of cultures in 2012. 

S. Korea ranks 108th in gender equality: WEF report

   I read WTF report, but when I read what kind of neighbours on the list Korea has, I probably stay with WTF. Not that it's something new anyway.

But before slamming, ebbrybody, better to remember that Korea is around US in 60's right now.

The revolution will come. First harbingers of it were thrown already both at Super Junior and lately at Big Bang. So that young korean boys would know (if they haven't already) what condom is and what bra is.

Junsu blocked

   Grass is green, water is wet, nothing new. So this is what his tweets were about... Now all becomes clear.

Which is kind of weird this comes from SBS, because I thought this is the broadcast that doesn't give a squirrel's tush about such issues. But maybe SBS drama and SBS music show department are different and at war. I dunno.
Fans are praising Junsu for staying positive, but in all honesty and my loving him - was he left with any other choice? He has to stay positive to not go insane. That's all.
But I guess it's the new fad to cut out some best performances lately. Yeah, MBC, you better watch your back, cause I ain't gonna forgive!

MBC and racial issue

   

   Again. Korean media have to catch up with world trends. However, I have to add one personal statement - I'm not a fan of an over-zealous political correctness. It's plain dumb. It was best shown in one ep. of South Park when they had tests about "what offends you". People had their brain waves recorded by some machine, and the reaction to some words they find "offensive" was measured. And there was this hilarious scene: Christ - nope, chair - nope, camel - f*ck-you-man, that's offensive!!!

Right now we are living in a world when we have to be careful about every damn word. Calling someone lazy when someone is lazy may be seen as highly offensive. Kids nowadays are not lazy and dumb, but dyslectic, dyscalculiac, you name it. When I said once on one forum that if people can't wait for subs that badly, they should learn the language, I was called rude. Not the person who was wailing at subbers. In my country we also make fun of foreigners. Americans make fun of immigrants (Latin America mostly) and no one cares. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but people should just chill about some issues. Making fun of foreigners was always a part of the group character, regardless if it's a country or a tribe. It was "us versus them" game  and mocking was an element of a warfare. We are not afraid of something we can laugh at (oh, anthropology can explain everything^^).

Plus, people should remember one thing - Europe and US had over 200 years to develop democracy with all its faults and pitfalls (counting from French Revolution, sorry to all Greek philisophers). Korea has been in the process of it for merely 20 years. Think, people.

New level of journalism

   I've said that so many times now - Nate has crappy articles. They have bad journalists. I'm not the Pullitzer candidate either but maybe, I hope, my sentences make sense. Or at least majority of them. Nate articles make no sense, usually. They also cover some ridiculous topics, gossip and hilarious polls. I wouldn't even write about this if I didn't go to HanCinema yesterday and I saw one article translated from Nate. It may be the translation, or it may be not. I translate a lot and I may say one thing - even the best translating skills won't make an Einstein out of ie. The Diva, so I wouldn't blame the translation just because the base article is stupid behind any limits.

The merry bunch of some of us from here went there and commented.

Chunnie's shekshi tape is not Chunnie?

   Yesterday the bomb was dropped, as JTBC news reported that 'certain idol and actor' is involved in sex-tape/pics/whatever scandal. Everyone assumed that it was our pack of sunshine a.k.a. Yucheon. Well, I bet it was him too from those blurred pics, but anyway.

As soon as all reliable source, that is allkpop reported yesterday, the hell broke loose. Today C-Jes stated they will fill their 655343972 suit against the broadcast for that.

The second likely candidate was CNBlue. 2012 is surely getting more and more interesting.

Runaway wife cause of JYJ

This is really, really, really hilarious.

Asia Prince neglected

   See, there is a good reason why I can't take Japanese seriously. I was never an avid fan of either manga or anime. The series I read/watched was mostly non shoujo, so I can't really connect with all this fandom ("Evangelion" for Eva!!! *jeez, I'm a genius*). Worse, I despise this one and the whole yaoi genre as well. I guess I wrote once why I hate yaoi so much. Everyone is entitled to one's own opinion, some may love it, some may hate it. I'm a hater then.

According to Koreaboo:

"The Boss's label Open World Entertainment, as well as various Japanese sources have revealed news surrounding member Karam's first acting role in a movie.
The movie is an adaptation of a manga series of the same name, and revolves around the love story of two high-schoolers. The school's "Princess", in this case a young pretty male, and the "Prince", a girl with a tomboyish presence.
When the singer of Mizuki's (Ito Ohno) all-girl band Blaue Rosen moves overseas, Akira (Karam) is set to join them. While he first has to overcome Mizuki's suspicious misgivings, Akira dresses up as a girl to be able to fit in the band."

This is where things start to get really weird. 

Y U No sarang me, Oppa?

   I thought that not everyone follows me some places else, and this is too good to hide it. I found it on tumblr actually, but I bet it's available everywhere connected to broadly understood Kpop fandom.

Fangirls are scary, dumb and stubborn. Those three traits combined make them almost as scary as ACTA and SOPA combined.

Oppa, please date every horny fangirl that dreams of holding hands with you! So we, usual fans, could get a break from their whining, moaning, spazzing and idiocy.

Short notice

   As a committed blogger, I want to say few words on this war that started yesterday, few minutes past 9 pm local time. SOPA law is not effective yet, but they took down Megaupload and few other filesharing sites. Some may ask - how a law that applies to US only affects us? It does, and in a great deal. First of all, most of the hosting sites are based (or were based) in US. After being taken down, links are broken. Tinypic, ie., I used it to host lovely and dorky Kpop gifs I found on the net. They are all gone now. The one above is directly sent to Picassa (it does consumme the space).

Oppa Didn't Mean It 2012 Part 1

Oh, and quite big this time.

This is what this is about:
MC asked what kind of parents they would be, CAP takes the mic and says "I would raise my children cooly" then said http://i.imgur.com/hz31w.jpg, and http://i.imgur.com/gl1pH.jpg immediately after. They all ask "WHY!?" to which he says http://i.imgur.com/7tB94.jpg. Then Niel asks "so you hit her at home?" and Chunji says "there's even more dangerous" (even though they probably meant "thats") to which CAP replies "to make her obedient." (source)

‘Best Idol Star’ award to JYJ

   AKP reports that: "From December 8th to the 28th, KBS held a ‘2011 Best Icon Award‘ poll on their website and JYJ secured the #1 spot for ‘Best Idol Star’.

JYJ with 58,357 votes beat out Lee Seung Gi who had 53,560 votes to come out on top. JYJ who released their first special full-length Korean album ‘In Heaven‘ this year have proven that they are capable and talented musicians.

Behind JYJ were not only Lee Seung Gi, but also Park Si Hoo, Kim Hyun Joong, Girls’ Generation, and more.

Netizens favorite corner on ‘Gag Concert‘ proved to be ‘The Loving Man Who Makes Ambiguous Decisions’ which came in at #1, and actor Shin Ha Kyun of KBS 2TV‘s ‘Brain‘ seized the #1 spot for ‘Best Cast Role’."

And now, ladies and gentlemen,  "A staff member from KBS uploaded a picture and tweeted, “Due to schedule ~ We went to find JYJ who was filming in Kangnam, and delivered the Best Icon Award. The three young men who are still spirited, lively, and cheerful as before. We even brought restorative herbal medicine so that they’ll eat and hang in there..”
In the picture uploaded, the JYJ members are seen holding their award and herbal medicine with pleased expressions on their faces."

...

Allow me to puke first.

Youtube games

   Looks like our all-beloved source of spazzing, fainting or hating, that is YouTube, was used in what - in my eyes - looks like poorly planned, hate-filled anti-Hallyu propaganda. But well, everyone can believe what they want. My first reaction after reading that was: oh, so Yahoo Japan is reporting this? U mad, bro?

Article:

Youtube blocks Korea as a result of using tools to promote KPOP
Youtube announced that they will be blocking access from Korea. Users with the country setting “Korea” will not be able to upload videos, their views numbers will be monitored which means that they won’t be able to affect the number of views.

What is the reason that forced them to take this step? The truth is, Korea in order to support it’s own Kpop, manipulate the number of views into becoming more than 100,000 views. Normally Youtube will count one view for each user, but in Korea they have tools and use multiple accounts that allow them to fake increase the number of views.

Because of that, Girls Generation has more views than world stars like Britney Spears and Avril Lavigne. The ban is the measures taken to prevent such attacks.

source: Yahoo!Japan . trans: @As0or83